The White House has initiated a new ‘merit-based’ federal hiring plan, with explicit instructions to agencies to disregard race and gender in their hiring decisions.
The significance becomes clear when we consider the statements made by Vince Haley, assistant to President Donald Trump for domestic policy, and Charles Ezell, acting director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. They assert that “The American people deserve a federal workforce dedicated to American values and efficient service.” Their criticism is directed at the traditional hiring criteria, which they believe overemphasize discriminatory ‘equity’ quotas and inadvertently lead to the hiring of unfit, unskilled bureaucrats.
The proposed plan calls for reforming the federal recruitment process to ensure that only the most talented, capable, and patriotic Americans are hired into the federal service. This is to be achieved by implementing skills-based hiring, eliminating unnecessary degree requirements, and streamlining the job application process. It also aims to reduce the time-to-hire to under 80 days by emphasizing the use of talent pools and shared certificates and streamlining the background check process.
Reports from the White House indicate that approximately 100,000 jobs in federal agencies have been cut. This development follows earlier reports that the White House is focused on reducing the size of the federal workforce.
The White House is pushing forward a ‘merit-based’ federal hiring approach, sidelining traditional considerations such as race and gender. The intent is clear – to create a federal workforce dedicated to American values and efficient service. However, the plan’s potential impact, both positive and negative, is yet to be fully assessed.